The Nightmare
by kate10011
Summary: One couple is finally finding out what it means to live the dream, the other is living in a nightmare.


**My first H&A one-shot, sort of an apology for ending my CHAX series, even though this is Heath & Bianca, it has a LOT of CHAX!**

**Enjoy! (Please _REVIEW_)**

* * *

**The Nightmare.**

After a seizure, an extremely premature c-section and a psychotic episode, Bianca Scott didn't know how much more the universe could throw her in such a short space of time. But when her one night-stand turned occasional fuck-buddy turned baby daddy turned boyfriend inadvertently told her that her best friend was still alive she was completely flawed.

"Say that again?" She demanded, staring at Heath, who had begun to panic.

"I didn't say anything" He lied poorly, "I was just ….. being stupid."

"Heath Braxton tell me the truth" She demanded again, with that he pulled her into the bedroom and slammed the door behind them. "What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing, okay, don't say anything to anyone" He whispered angrily, "No one can know."

"What about Ruby, she's completely off the rails, she faked a pregnancy for God's sake" Bianca exclaimed, "And Brax! He's obviously not coping either, he's about to snap and take someone's head off."

"Listen to me, calm down" Heath hissed, "Brax knows okay, he arranged the whole thing. And Ruby can't know, it's not going to be for much longer anyway."

"What do you mean Brax arranged it?" She exclaimed, "You don't just arrange to fake someone's death"

"You do when her life is in danger" Heath rebutted, "Look, if we hadn't done something, he would have come after Charlie, then Ruby, then you and Darcy, he left because he thinks he got his revenge. Do you want to know what really happened that night?"

* * *

_When Charlie got out of surgery Brax found Sid in the doctor's break room._

"_Can I help you with something Brax?" Sid asked._

"_You need to tell Ruby that Charlie won't recover." Brax said, closing the door behind him. "You need to convince her to take Charlie off life support."_

"_Brax, Charlie has a very good chance of making it out alive, a full recovery is not off the cards." Sid said as he began to panic, "There's no reason to stop her care."_

_Brax held out a large envelope, "25,000 enough to pay off your ex-wife's debts, and get yourself a good lawyer" Brax explained, "In return, you help me and you keep your mouth shut."_

_Sid had no choice but to agree._

_Two days later, Brax got an alarming phone call from Sid, Charlie was waking up. He rushed down to the hospital just as Sid administered her with a drug to keep her in an induced coma. When Brax arrived he barricaded himself in the room with Charlie long enough for the drug to take complete effect before allowing his audience to think they had talked him out of the room._

_Hours later, Sid declared Charlie dead and they wheeled the body to the morgue. Brax stayed with Ruby and the others, while Sid wheeled the bed to the loading docks, where Heath and a doctor where waiting with a transport van to take Charlie away. They paid off the morgue worker to pretend he had completed her autopsy, and bolted the casket shut to keep the funeral director from discovering the 60kgs of sandbags Brax and Heath had substituted for a body._

_Over the next few weeks, Brax did his best to make everyone think that he was grieving, while simultaneously slipping off to see Charlie, who had by now fully recovered, at every given opportunity._

* * *

"I want to see her" Bianca said when Heath had finished explaining how they got Charlie got of the hospital.

"Brax is going to kill me" Heath muttered, she didn't even blink, "Do you want to be a single mother?"

"I want to see her" Bianca repeated, "Or getting within ten feet of your son is going to be impossible."

"Fine" Heath conceded, "Pack a bag, tell April and Irene that I'm taking you out of town for the night."

"Where do I tell them I'm going?" Bianca asked as she threw a few things together.

"I don't care" Heath replied as he text Brax. "Brax is furious."

"Tell him Rocco appreciates how happy his Mum is right now" Bianca said, zipping up her bag, "Can we go now?"

"Let's go" Heath said, leading them out of her room.

* * *

"Where do you think your going girly?" Irene asked when they entered the kitchen.

"Heath's taking me out of town for the night, just to distress a bit, we'll be back tomorrow" Bianca lied convincingly.

"And where exactly out of town do you think you'll be going?" Irene questioned.

"We're just going to drive for a bit and see where we end up" Heath lied, "But we'll make sure to stay within phone coverage, so the hospital can call if anything happens."

"We just need a night to ourselves" Bianca said pleadingly, "It's just been too full on since the baby was born."

"Well don't go to far" Irene said, "And don't be making Rocco a sibling just yet."

Heath laughed at Bianca's horrified expression, "Not until I make an honest woman out of her Irene, promise" He said.

"Forgive me for thinkin' that your promises don't mean much" Irene muttered.

"Come on, if we leave now we'll be well out of town before Brax comes and kills me" Heath said, leading Bianca towards the car.

* * *

Just over an hour later they pulled up at an all too familiar cabin, causing Bianca to burst into a fit of laughter.

"You do realize that Rocco was conceived here, don't you?" She asked as Heath watched her with a curious expression.

"Never really thought of it" He admitted, before climbing out of the truck, taking Bianca's bag and helping her out of the cab, "Just remember not to mention Ruby unless she does, okay?"

"Okay" Bianca said, clinging onto Heath nervously.

"Charlie" Heath called as he opened the front door of the cabin, "It's Heath"

"Coming" Charlie replied, rounding the corner with several blankets wrapped around her, "Bianca, what are you doing here."

"Surprise" Bianca said, hugging her very-much-alive best friend, "Someone may have let the proverbial cat out of the bag."

"Oh" Charlie muttered, leading Bianca towards the couch (which may or may not, read: was, the very site of Rocco's conception.) "So what have you been doing since I….died?"

"Well let's see, Liam and I got married" She chuckled at the look of surprise and joy on Charlie's face, "And then we got divorced" queue Charlie's sad face, "And I had a baby" Charlie gasped, "And a psychotic break-down" she gasped again, "And did I mention Heath is the father of said baby, that was conceived on this very couch, and that Heath and I are official"

"My head is spinning is ways you cannot imagine" Charlie muttered, "I'll never look at this couch the same again."

"Me neither" Bianca joked.

"Ewww" Charlie groaned, "So where's the baby?"

"Your Godson is still in hospital, he was a little premature" Bianca replied, "And you have no say in the God-child thing, it's a given."

"I'm honored" Charlie said, "But still grossed out about the couch."

"Like you and Brax haven't done the nasty on every surface in this place" Heath complained from the other room.

"I bleached the kitchen bench just for you" Charlie called back. Both girls laughed at Heath's groan of disapproval.

"So tell me how you two ended up together" Charlie requested, "I miss Summer Bay gossip."

"Well let's see, the baby was born, and when Heath took me to see him, I had a seizure, was put in a coma, and when I woke up was convinced that the baby had died, everyone was lying to me and there was some kind of cover-up happening. I left the hospital, when to see Liam, convinced we were still happily married until Sid and Heath turned up and took me back to the hospital. The next morning I woke up with no recollection of anything after seeing the baby, and Heath was avoiding me. Rocco needed a blood transfusion, and after Heath donated blood for him, we got to talking, which turned into making out and getting caught by Dex and April. Then Heath "let me off the hook" so April yelled at him, and I showed up on his doorstep, which convinced him I was having another episode, and told him I had feelings for him, and I asked if he was in or out" Bianca summarized. "It sounds so much worse phrased like that"

"Yeah" Charlie laughed, "It does."

"So what have you been doing?" Bianca asked.

"Well after I woke up in the hospital and had Brax concoct this ridiculous plan, I spent a few weeks in a hospital in Bega, before I came back here, and I've been teaching myself to cook, and trying not to give Brax food poisoning, and reading, a lot." Charlie said, "And well, Brax keeps me occupied when he's here."

"I can hear you" Heath called out.

"Then leave" Charlie yelled back to him.

"You two fight like siblings" Bianca laughed.

* * *

"Bianca, can you do me a favor?" Charlie asked as they were leaving the next morning.

"Anything" Bianca replied.

"My birthday is tomorrow, Brax will be with me, but can you check on Ruby?"

"Of course" Bianca promised, giving Charlie one last hug.

"Keep outta trouble will ya Buckton" Heath said as he threw the last few things into his truck.

"Don't get arrested on me will ya Braxton" Charlie fired back, to which Heath flipped her off. "You're just lucky I never filled out our arrest paperwork"

* * *

The next day Bianca woke up early and when over to the caravan park, where she found Ruby eating breakfast at a picnic table.

"How are you?" Bianca asked as she sat down.

"Does anyone even know what today is?" Ruby asked angrily.

"Charlie's birthday" Bianca replied, "I know, and Brax knows."

"Then where is he?" Ruby asked, "Or has he given up on me too"

"Heath took him pig shooting or something equally as ridiculous" Bianca replied, "I thought we could have a girls day"

"Don't you have to be with your baby?" Ruby asked quietly.

"We could both go visit him if you'd like" Bianca suggested, "I'm sure he'd like to meet his Aunty Ruby, and see his Mum without having to watch his parents make out."

Ruby laughed, "That actually sounds nice"

* * *

Ruby was enthralled by the tiny boy as soon as she saw him, especially when Bianca and the nurses let her hold him, she was honored to be the first person aside from his parents and the hospital staff to give him a cuddle.

"So why Rocco?" Ruby asked, "I've always wondered why parents choose a certain name."

"Well, it was a bit of a compromise from Rocky" Bianca said, "That was Heath's suggestion, and Rocco was my grandfather's name."

"It suits him" Ruby said as Heath entered the room. "Back from shooting pigs?"

"Yeah" Heath muttered with a sideways glance at Bianca, "Is the baby okay?"

"He's perfect" Bianca said, "What's going on?"

"Jake is dead" Heath said, causing Bianca to squeal and jump into his arms, "The coppers got him this morning"

* * *

"I need the death certificate for Charlotte Buckton" Georgina Watson told a nurse at the reception desk, "Its evidence in a case."

"I'm sorry, there seems to be some sort of administration error" The nurse said, checking the computer files again, "There's no record of her death in our system"

"Administration error" Watson mumbled darkly, administration error my butt, she thought, heading to the neo-natal ward.

When she reach the door she saw Ruby with Bianca and Heath, the baby safely in the crib, she steadied herself before walking into the room, "Heath Braxton, where the hell is Charlie?" she demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked, "She's dead, we buried her months ago."

"Administration errors, missing paperwork, no official database has her death anywhere" Watson exclaimed.

"Heath, what's going on?" Ruby asked.

"Could we do this in a more appropriate location" Bianca suggested, gripping Heath's hand tightly. "And not infront of the baby"

"Heath, is Charlie alive?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby why don't we go for a walk?" Heath suggested.

"I want to see my Mum!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Trust me, you really don't want to be anywhere near her right now" Heath said, leading her out of the room with Watson following closely. They sat down in an empty waiting room, as Heath braced himself to spill the beans, again!

"What the hell is going on?" Watson asked.

"When Charlie and Brax found out that Jake was coming after all of us, they agreed they'd do anything to keep everyone safe. Brax knew that he'd come after the whole family and anyone else who would get caught in the crossfire. So after Buckton got shot…." Heath trailed off, "We transferred her to a hospital up the coast and told everyone that she was dead."

"What about the funeral and the insurance payout." Ruby asked.

"We forged ahead with the funeral despite not having the proper paperwork sorted" Watson muttered, "No one wanted for Charlie to miss out on having a proper burial"

"And the money came from Charlie's savings account" Heath said, "None of the paperwork for her death ever actually got filed. Brax didn't go to the burial because he didn't want to see people mourning for her when he knew she was still alive."

"So where is she know?" Ruby asked, "Is she still in hospital?"

"No, she got released a while ago and she's been staying at a cabin we brought when this whole mess started." Heath explained, "Brax is with her now."

"Why go to all this trouble?" Watson asked, "You should have come to the police, we would have helped."

"We though we had more time, we brought the cabin and we were going to send Darcy, Ruby, Bianca and Case there to keep them safe" Heath explained, "Then Brax and I were going to deal with Jake, but then Charlie got shot and we went to plan B"

"But Charlie consented to everyone believing that she was dead?" Watson clarifies.

"Plan B was her idea" Heath says, "She made Brax and I promise we'd do it to keep Ruby and the others safe."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ruby asks, tears streaming down her face, "Why would you let me believe that my mother was dead all this time."

"We were trying to keep you safe Rubes" Heath says, "We didn't want you to lie but we had to think about what was best."

"But all the things I've done since she died" Ruby sobs, "I broke up with Casey, I told Romeo I was pregnant, I cut everyone out of my life."

"Hey, I wanted to lock you up in a basement until you came around, but Brax and Charlie insisted you were tough enough to handle yourself." Heath rebuts, "And it hasn't exactly been easy watching you do all that shit."

* * *

A few hours later, Ruby, Casey, Darcy, Bianca and Heath are on their way up to the cabin for the first time. When they arrive, Charlie and Brax are waiting for them on the front verandah.

"Mum" Ruby screams, jumping out of the car and into Charlie's arms, "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too bub" Charlie replies keeping a tight grip on her daughter. "I'm sorry"

"I forgive you" Ruby replies automatically. And finally the nightmare was over.


End file.
